Football practice begins Monday … except it's really already started

Officially, the ink for Rule 27-8-1 in the Virginia High School League Handbook is barely dry. Unofficially, most coaches will tell you other coaches have been doing it for years.

Either way, the "year-round" practice rule that went into effect last August has given coaches virtually unlimited access to his/her athletes. Which is why the official first day of football practice (July 30) isn't really the first day anymore.

Has it been a good thing?

"I think so," Woodside coach Danny Dodson said. "You get a chance to see what your kids can do, see where everybody's at, and get a head start on personnel decisions. And it allows you to see what kind of stuff you want to run."

"Yes and no," Phoebus coach Stan Sexton said. "Some will use it as a good situation to install some things and teach. But you always have the guys who go hog wild and crazy, pushing their kids out there five days. And by the time it gets to August or your first game, the kids are burned out."

And there's Mike Smith at Hampton, who is going into his 41st season.

"For some people out there, it really didn't change anything," he said. "A number of them have been violating the rules. I really, truthfully believe that's why the VHSL changed it, because they couldn't control their own rules."

Other than setting aside three "dead periods" — defined as the first 10 days of practice during the fall, winter and spring — during the school year and one in the summer, the VHSL imposes no restrictions. So if a coach wants to have his kids on the practice field five days a week, four hours a day, he can.

Most regions, including the Eastern, forbid the use of pads and helmets during the off-season workouts. Other than that, coaches can dictate the schedule as they see fit.

So how are most handling it?

"We're going three days a week," Sexton said. "They come in and lift, then they do some agility drills, and then they run. We'll do some seven-on-seven (passing) and work on fundamentals. We try to do something different each time so it doesn't get monotonous."

"We go Monday through Thursday from 4 to 7 p.m., Warwick coach Juan Jackson said. "We'll spend an hour-and-a-half in the weight room and an hour-and-a-half on the field with agility work, conditioning and seven-on-seven stuff."

Hampton, Heritage and Kecoughtan are among those going four days a week. Woodside is doing conditioning and field work three days a week.

For Kecoughtan's Alonzo Coley, the only first-year coach in the Peninsula District this season, it's been a chance to get to know his players.

"We've been able to evaluate the talent and see them actually work in drills," he said. "We can see how athletically good they are. We don't do a whole lot, but we do conditioning and run some plays for about 15 minutes a day."

True to their nature, most coaches are going to like the opportunity to spend more time with their players. But what do the players think?

"I like it," Heritage running back Khalid Abdullah said. "It's actually really organized; we're not just out there fooling around. The big thing is that we're developing more team chemistry for that first (official) day of practice. That goes a long way."

Smith's concern is the athletes being overworked, both physically and mentally.

"To me, the kids need to step away from football a little bit," he said. "It can't be their entire life, even as much as they love it."

As for the rule itself, Jackson sees one problem.

"The only thing I would say is, the dead periods can hurt you," he said. "Sometimes you get a kid totally involved, but then he has a week off and runs astray. But that's part of rule, and I understand it's there to encourage athletes playing other sports."